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Bill Gates recently invested in a company aiming to offer teachers a type of Consumer Reports on education technology. The service, called Graphite, would include peer reviews of products, and in this question-and-answer session, Gates says he hopes the program leads to a "virtuous cycle" between ed-tech entrepreneurs and teachers. "Teachers are the lifeblood of the education system," he said. "It's impossible to improve education without constructively engaging with teachers, listening to them to understand their needs in the classroom."

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More technological tools that focus on teacher evaluation and accountability must be developed and made available to schools, educator Lucy Boyd asserts in this commentary. "Teacher development and training tools are an excellent start, but there is much room for technological innovation to streamline and enhance teacher evaluation and accountability," Boyd writes.

More students are gaining access to personal mobile devices in schools, and video is more often being used in classroom lessons and homework assignments, according to results from the 2013 Speak Up Survey from Project Tomorrow. Among other things, the survey of teachers, students and others also found that mobile devices often are being used for schoolwork, students increasingly are focusing on their digital footprint and gaming is gaining a following in education circles.

Bill Gates recently invested in a company aiming to offer teachers a type of Consumer Reports on education technology. The service, called Graphite, would include peer reviews of products, and in this question and answer session, Gates says he hopes the program leads to a "virtuous cycle" between ed tech entrepreneurs and teachers. "Teachers are the lifeblood of the education system," he said. "It's impossible to improve education without constructively engaging with teachers, listening to them to understand their needs in the classroom."

In Jackson County, Mich., about 200 educators attended the first EdTech Kickoff to the school year, where they learned about the latest in education technology. That included the mobile application, Things to Think About, which was created by high-school students and includes prompts designed to encourage discussion.

Bill Gates used his recent keynote address at the SXSWedu Conference & Festival in Austin, Texas, to champion the use of social media and other technology to connect educators and allow them to learn from each other, SmartBrief's senior education editor, Melissa Greenwood, writes in this blog post. "The fact that these platforms let you categorize and talk about what your challenges are and sort of reach out to experts anywhere in the country who will be able to give you examples of what works with that type of student, it's really breaking down that isolation in a really strong way," Gates said.